WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — Health-care expenditures grew
at an annual rate of
4.5 percent through November 2011, up from 3.9 percent in 2010, according to the nonprofit Altarum Institute’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending, based in Ann Arbor, Mich. They accounted for 18 percent of GDP in October, compared with 16 percent at the start of the recession.

A continued rise may be moderated in coming years by looming budget constraints, because “we have to be able to afford it,” said Charles Roehrig, the center’s director.

Over time, “to fully address unemployment and income- distribution issues,” the United States needs more effective investment in skills, education, infrastructure and technology, and must become more competitive in the so-called tradable side of the economy, which includes manufacturing, said Michael Spence, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business..

Even so, health-care jobs may provide greater stability than factory and building-related work, which tends to fluctuate more with economic conditions. The unemployment rate for health services was 6 percent in December, compared with 16 percent for construction, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data that isn’t seasonally adjusted.

The U.S. also lags behind many smaller economies in the number of health-care providers per person, with two doctors for every 1,000 people in 2009, compared with three for Ireland, four for Spain and Portugal, and six for Greece, according to the most-recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data.